This invention relates to artificial baits for fish and other aquatic animals, more particularly to artificial baits which slowly release attractants for fish or other aquatic animals into the surrounding water upon use.
Most, if not all, techniques for catching fish or other water-living animals such as shell fish, employ a bait or other attractant to which the desired species is attracted. Typically, said bait is of natural origin, i.e., animal or plant material. While such natural baits are widely used, largely because they are low in cost, such natural baits are quite inefficient in attracting the desired fish or other species. As a result, much of the natural bait used does not lead to the capture of the desired fish or other animal species.
Recently the availability of natural baits has decreased while the cost thereof has been increasing rapidly. The use of mechanical equipment for baiting hooks has created a need for an uniformly shaped bait form that is easily handled by the mechanical equipment used in commercial fishing operations. Natural baits also decompose rapidly and an artificial bait would provide convenience, storage stability, and would eliminate the problems of disposal of unused natural baits.
For this reason, in recent years there has been an effort to produce an artificial bait which is more effective in catching fish or other aquatic animals. For example, artificial lures made to resemble insects, small fish, shrimp or other natural prey of the species to be caught are widely used to catch certain types of fish. Such lures operate mainly by visually stimulating the target species. While such lures work very well for catching certain types of game fish, their use is not widely applicable to most major food fishes or for catching shellfish, crustaceans or other sea animals.
It has been found that for many species, including major food fishes, the most highly effective baits are those which are smelled by the animal to be caught. Accordingly, there have been developed sprays and other formulations which may be applied to natural or plastic baits in order to impart thereto a smell to which the fish is attracted. Unfortunately, however, these sprays and the like are not sufficiently long lasting for most applications, in particular commercial fishing, and tend to wash off the natural bait or other substrate to which they are applied.
It has previously been attempted to formulate the attractant into a solid matrix from which it is released during use. Unfortunately, such solid formulations generally employ a mixture of expensive natural gums which are difficult to obtain and very difficult to form into the desired shape. Furthermore, the physical properties of said gums, including their lack of thermoplasticity, renders said solid baits unsuitable in many applications, and difficult to use in any case. In addition, such baits employ nonwater soluble gums, which do not always release the attractant as readily as desired.
It would, therefore, be highly desirable to provide a solid artificial bait from which an olfactory stimulant for the fish is slowly released upon immersion of the bait in water, and which is substantially stable during storage at ambient temperatures. It would be further desirable to provide artificial bait which can be readily shaped into a variety of physical forms, which bait is adaptable to catch many species of fish or other aquatic animals, as well as to provide diverse modes of catching said species.